1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to an imaging device, imaging device control method and program for the imaging device control method and is applicable, for example, to a camera-integrated video tape recorder. The present invention effectively avoids user confusion by displaying a marker so that a luminance level, converted into a specific pattern by zebra display, can be specified on a histogram, thus providing the user with useful information resulting from simultaneous activation of histogram display and zebra display.
2. Background Art
Conventional imaging devices such as camera-integrated video tape recorder offer so-called zebra display, histogram display or other exposure control verification method.
Here, the zebra display is a method of showing the region with a specific luminance level by converting the specific luminance level into a specific pattern such as diagonal stripes in the display of a monitor image. The zebra display permits easy verification of properly exposed, overexposed and other regions on the monitor. More specifically, the zebra display makes it possible to control the exposure during the filming of a person so that the luminance level of the facial region is about 70[%], thus ensuring proper filming. Therefore, if the region with a luminance level of about 70[%] can be marked with diagonal stripes by the zebra display, proper exposure can be verified during the filming of a person. Further, if the region with a luminance level of 100[%] or above can be marked with diagonal stripes, the whited-out portion can be readily distinguished.
On the other hand, the histogram display is designed, for example, to tally the luminance level on a pixel-by-pixel basis and show a histogram of the tally result. The histogram display allows for easy verification of the luminance level distribution in the imaging result. That is, if the distribution is skewed toward higher luminance levels, one can determine that the picture is rather whited out as a whole. In contrast, if the distribution is skewed toward lower luminance levels, one can determine that the picture is rather blacked out as a whole.
Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. Hei 9-51472 proposes an exposure control method which determines the most distributed luminance level in the histogram to determine whether or not the picture is back-lit and which uses this determination result for exposure control.
Incidentally, simultaneous activation of the histogram display and zebra display can probably provide the user with significantly more exposure control information than if the histogram display and zebra display are activated independently from each other.
However, simple simultaneous activation of the histogram display and zebra display may, instead, confuse the user. If the user can be provided with useful information resulting from simultaneous activation of the histogram display and zebra display by avoiding such user confusion, ease of use for the user will probably improve further.